Gifts
by fortitudo
Summary: (A ficlet I wrote for Christmas Day.) Ciel finds it pertinent to give Zero a present.
1. Chapter 1

Ciel had never been particularly gifted at knitting, but that didn't mean she didn't try. The stitches were uneven and haphazard in places, but overall it was decent for her 3rd attempt… To make it easier on herself she had only stuck with a single color the entire way through, although in hindsight it wasn't a very exciting color for a scarf. Overall, she was quite satisfied with her project and once she had finished tidying up her workspace on the floor and had taken a cautious glance at the clock, proceeded the wrap the gift in the most presentable manner she could manage, given her supplies and time.

It was not technically Christmas, it was probably more like sometime during November, but she doubted the recipient of the gift really cared what month it was, let alone whether it was the holidays or not.

Happy as she could possibly be with her hodgepodge style of wrapping, she carefully placed the package near her door, lest she forget the next morning.

—

She could have spotted him a mile away, or rather heard him, from the amount of noise he was making. Zero had apparently spent the last hour or so attempting to extricate snow from his armor, and he was definitely not happy about it. He had barely given her a nod, as he was wholly absorbed in unceremoniously dumping quite a bit of snow out of his boots outside the entrance of the Transerver room.

"I take it you don't really like snow," she said, in an attempt to lighten his sour mood. She almost regretted saying anything, as he had given her the expression he usually wore while in the process of brutally destroying Pantheons before returning to arduous process of "de-snowing" his armor.

She waited until he was finished, hands tucked behind her in a valiant attempt to conceal the gift, although Zero was clearly not in any mood to be observant of his surroundings. Suddenly all nerves and fidgeting, she abruptly deposited the present into his lap.

The look he gave her then was priceless.

"Don't worry, it's not anything fancy. It's just something I made when I had the time." she stammered out, currently finding the tops of her shoes extremely interesting. He unwrapped it without a word, but seemed hesitant to actually pick the scarf up and try it on. She had guessed at the proper length, so she hoped it would at least function as a proper scarf, as opposed to actually looking like one. Several, long minutes passed before he broke the silence.

"But I didn't get you anything," he said quietly, his eyes still trained on the scarf in his lap. She chuckled softly, causing him to lose his staring contest. "I don't expect anything back. It's a gift." Before he could form a proper retort, she turned heel and headed towards her room, as she had honestly spent enough time making the darn thing, and she needed to get back to her research.

—

A few days passed without much difficulty, and Ciel had just finished successfully assisting Zero on a relatively long mission. While she awaited his return via the Transerver, she had taken the opportunity to return to her room momentarily to somewhat tidy up her mess of a desk. Something bright and surprisingly fragrant caught her attention, and upon closer inspection she was able to identify that something as a small flower.  
She had no idea flowers, or plants in general for that matter, were still around this time of year, and she certainly didn't have the means to identify what kind it was. Nonetheless, she greatly appreciated the gesture, and had a sneaking suspicion of who had presented her with such a thing, and carefully stowed the flower in a nearby book before setting about her original task. Not too long after, she could hear the distinct clunk of the Command Room doors; Zero had made it back to base safe and sound and had come to provide proof of such. Trying to stifle a smile, she made her way back to give him a thank-you he would not soon forget.


	2. Chapter 2

Just because he could physically withstand extremely cold temperatures didn't mean he had to like it. The cold weather seemed to have it out for the red Reploid, and he would often find copious amounts of snow wedging itself in between him and his armor. To make matters worse, while the most important of his circuitry and wiring was well protected, but fragile inner workings of his neck were not. They were not really in harm's way per se, but it was not necessarily the most comfortable thing, and only compounded on his frustration with the frigid environments he had more recently found himself acquainted with. Mentioning it to Ciel would only make her worry more than she already undoubtedly was, so Zero kept it to himself.

When the lumpy and somewhat misshapen package had been unexpectedly thrown into his lap, he was more than slightly surprised. He hadn't received practically anything before, let alone a gift. Ciel's ability to somehow read his mind was welcomed and somehow comforting, albeit somewhat… unnerving to say the least. To be read like an open book when he was so very accustomed to being anything but would take some getting used to. The gift had been exactly what he had needed, and admittedly wanted, but the problem was actually voicing his gratitude. Surprise gifts of his own would have to do the trick, he supposed.

Getting Zero to actually use the gift, however, was where the problem lied. He was reluctant at first, mostly for fear of damaging it, as it was currently his singular and most treasured possession. It had remained in it's original packaging for quite some time, neatly folded and stored in the corner of the empty he had come to refer to as his. The fact that someone had actually taken the time to sit down, for a few hours at the least, and make something especially for him utterly baffled him.

Finally, mostly after some stern talking-tos from a worried Ciel about taking better care of himself, he had given in and donned the scarf before leaving for his next mission. Unsurprisingly, yet another cold one.

This time however, he found himself not so reluctant to brave frozen landscape.


End file.
